harbor. Consisting of 600 soldiers from Florence, 12,000 from the Pope and Italy, 6,000 from Spanish clergy, and 12,000 from Spanish nobles. In fact, there was only a force of 19,000 men when they set sail. To get an idea of how large the fleet was, it was said that the Armada was so enormous that when they would put a couple of ships at a time in dry-dock to scrape the bottoms of barnacles, that by the time they finished with the last ones, the first ones scraped needed to be scraped again.10 By July 11, 1588, there was barely enough food for the men and still a battle was yet to be fought. Finally, Parma sent word to Philip II that the majority of the Spanish ships were too large and displaced too much water and would be unable to get close enough to the coast of Flanders to escort Parma's forces across the English Channel. Philip's plan had hit its first major obstacle. The English plan was made successful by good planning, excellent leaders, and Spanish mistakes. In 1588, the English heard word of a Spanish invasion headed their way. Henry III of France believed the real invasion was aimed at France, but by February 22nd, Sir Christopher Hatton spoke to England's House of Commons explaining to them that Philip II of Spain was planning an invasion of England. Due to the urgency of the task ahead of them, Elizabeth did not have time to convene Parliament and ask for funds. Instead, she forced English nobles contribute to a defense fund which helped pay for ships and ammunitions. In the end, the English fleet was made up of 250 ships of varying size. To command these ships, Elizabeth I appointed Charles Howard of Effingham as Admiral of the Navy. She also designated Francis Drake, John Hawkins, and Martin Frobusher as squadron leaders under Admiral Howard. Elizabeth also set up a series of defenses for the harbors, coastlines, and rivers. These defenses included a series of beacons set up to warn other towns of an impending invasion. ...
